Where in the World is Geography?

On the eve of National Geography Awareness Week (November 12–18), teachers across the country are hoping Congress will pass the Teaching Geography Is Fundamental Act and rescue the subject from the curriculum backwaters to which it’s been banished by NCLB’s emphasis on reading and math scores.

“Geography has become a stepchild to other disciplines as NCLB narrows the curriculum,” says Washington, D.C., fifth-grade teacher Trelane Clark-Suazo. Clark-Suazo is a coordinator for National Geographic’s “Geography Action!,” a teacher-friendly program that gives K–12 educators online access to themed lesson plans, activities, and multi-disciplinary resources.
This year’s theme, “Africa in 3-D: Diversity, Demographics, and Discovery,” kicks off a five-year, round-the-world curriculum series that originated last year with “Migration: The Human Journey.” Each year, teachers and students will study a different continent as they follow the migration of the human family.
Get online resources and join the Geography Alliance network of educators by visiting www.nationalgeographic.com/geographyaction/ .